Rewind, Reboot, Reset
by Calaeris
Summary: Time passes, and people rebuild in the ruins of what they used to have, filling the voids they can and glossing over the pain of the ones they can't. But a Planet can't do that. This is what it does instead. (Time travel fix-it fic)
1. Chapter 1

Cloud woke up alert, hand reaching out for a weapon, chest heaving with panicked breaths and eyes lit bright in the dark of the room. It was midnight, perhaps, or close to it, and Cloud couldn't remember what he'd been dreaming about to prompt such a violent awakening. Nothing was in the room that shouldn't be - even the window was closed and locked against any intruder that dared to try entering. Concentrating, he noted the quiet sound of Tifa breathing in the next room and the muffled snores from the two children that meant that he was the only one awake in the house. He lay there for a moment, adjusting; it wasn't an unfamiliar situation.

His heart still pounding painfully from what was apparently absolutely nothing, there was no point in him even trying to go back to sleep right then. So, throwing back the blanket and carefully getting out of the bed, Cloud padded softly along the hallway and down the stairs, avoiding the worst of the creaks and groans out of consideration for the others. It was too early to get up for the day, but the familiar actions of going for a glass of water should at least centre him in the real world and relieve his dry throat.

His efforts to stay quiet were made in vain, however. Tifa might not have been at the peak of her physical fitness and alertness in the way she had been several years ago, but she certainly wasn't a slouch when it came to responding to potential burglars, and her habit of sleeping lightly meant he was caught as soon as he nudged the kitchen door open.

"Cloud?" she yawned, covering her mouth with a pyjama-clad arm as she joined him in the kitchen by the sink. "You okay?"

"I'm fine, Tifa," he whispered back, "just getting a glass of water. Nothing to worry about." He reached into one of the cupboards for a glass to prove his intentions.

"Alright," she answered, unconvinced, "so you didn't wake up from a nightmare again?"

"What?" Cloud said, a little louder than he'd intended, and paused for a moment to check that Denzel and Marlene were still breathing steadily in slumber before whispering, "I got up for some water, Tifa, no nightmares involved."

"It's just strange, that's all. This is the third night you've woken up in the middle of the night, and the other two nights you weren't exactly sleeping peacefully."

"I don't know what you mean," he deflected, studiously watching his glass fill instead of turning to look her in the eye.

"Cloud, we've talked about this." Disappointment coloured her words, and Cloud sighed before putting his glass down next to the sink.

"Tifa, I didn't have a nightmare and as far as I know, I've been sleeping like normal. I wake up, I'm thirsty, I come down for water, I'm not hiding anything." At her disbelieving stare, he shrugged and lightly smiled, "promise".

"You've been mumbling in your sleep, Cloud. I can't catch the words, but I can hear you saying _something_. I've heard you tossing and turning in bed, and you never look rested when you wake up. Are you sure you're okay, that there isn't something wrong?" she asked, reaching out to him and putting her hand on his arm. He placed his own hand over it, and held hers for a moment before letting go.

"I know that you're worried, but I would say something if I thought anything was wrong. I wouldn't put you or the kids at risk," he said, and when she opened her mouth with a frown he hurriedly added, "I just found myself wide awake. That's all."

"Fine," she said with a small smile that set off a pang of guilt, "I understand. I just worry, that's all."

"I know," he replied. "I'll finish this, and go back to bed. You go back too - tomorrow's not that far away, and it doesn't need to see both of us exhausted."

Waving her agreement, and with a softly yawned "goodnight", Tifa retreated back to her room and pushed her door mostly closed. As he drank, he could hear the soft rustling as she got into bed, and closed his eyes while resting the cool empty glass on his forehead.

It would be easy to grow paranoid, with his history. It would be so very easy to imagine a new catastrophe, of a new attack from Sephiroth or Jenova or just some new crappy secret of ShinRa's that was specifically designed to send him insane or control his actions; that was the trouble with living life lurching from one world-ending disaster to another. But people sometimes didn't sleep well. And he had more reason to sleep poorly than most, more nightmares than he could have imagined as a naive fourteen year old looking at a poster of a hero and dreaming of strength and power and acknowledgment.

He yawned, feeling tiredness sweep over him again as he leaned over the sink to rinse out the glass, his eyes growing heavy between each blink. A moment later, he felt his muscles release and the unfortunately all-too-familiar sensation of his body collapsing.

_Cloud! _

He heard a faint cry as he - somehow - passed through the floor? - Aerith? Tifa? - and the world went white and fragrant with the scent of flowers for an instant - then it went to a shining, shifting green.

Cloud unravelled, in an eternity and an instant and the last lingering traces of him flowed into the Lifestream.


	2. Chapter 2

The first thing Cloud noticed was the breeze, gentle and warm against his skin. It meant that even before he opened his eyes he was on high alert. It may have been grass prickling at his neck and arms rather than concrete or metal, and the breeze might show that he wasn't trapped in a walled enclosure, but that didn't mean he wasn't in a prison of some kind.

He lay there for a few minutes, feigning unconsciousness in case his abductor was waiting for him to revive to hurt Tifa, or worse, the children, for - well, whatever reason someone would kidnap him. Focusing on his surroundings, Cloud listened out for an indication of anyone else being present, their breath perhaps, or their footfall. However, all he heard was the shrill sound of birdsong and the breeze rustling through something green.

Cautiously, he opened his eyes, and then closed them again rapidly as the sunlight overhead blinded him. He rolled onto his side and blinked to try and clear his vision, noting that he was still in his pyjamas, before sitting up fully to try and take in his surroundings.

He was on an open meadow, lush green grass flourishing and the odd shrub haphazardly growing with birds perched among the branches. Wildflowers nodded their heads with the tugging of the playful wind, and Cloud idly reached out to still one that was tapping against his waist. No other human could be seen, and the view spanned for miles. Everything was so bright, and clear, and alive - even the blue of the sky seemed more impossibly blue than he had ever seen it before, and the air was sweet and clear in a way it had never been, not even when he was a child adventuring around Mount Nibel.

Next to him was his First Tsurugi, which made the scene even more bizarre. What kind of person would bother to knock him out, transport him to a meadow he had never seen before while he was still in his pyjamas, then considerately give him a sword so large it would probably have taken three other people to carry, before leaving without giving him any idea of what they wanted? Because someone wanted something out of this. They hadn't given him his phone or bike, after all, so for all he knew he could be here to kill a monster, or for someone to hold him for a ransom anonymously.

With no idea where he was, he could either stay and hope someone came for him, or start moving in any direction that made sense. Standing, he scouted the area. South was out - there were no natural landmarks to hint at a settlement or even a distance - and on the horizon to the west and north were mountains that could have been any distance away, but to the east there appeared to be a river behind a stretch of trees that could, hopefully lead him somewhere with people. It was the best option, but it would be a long trek.

He took a quick inventory of what he had - sword, obviously, and its harness so he could at least carry it easily; one pair of slippers, brown with rubber soles so they might last a few hours; one set of light pyjamas, pale blue with chocobo chicks on that had been given to him by Yuffie for his last birthday. It could be worse, barely, but with no food or water, no gil, no phone, and no Fenrir it was difficult to figure out how.

Still, to stay would be to dehydrate as there was no fresh water nearby, so...

_No time like the present_, Cloud thought, and pulled his sword's harness onto his back before starting out.

Six hours later, he was starting to flag. It had been late morning when he'd set out, so he had been walking through the heat of the sun. As a not-SOLDIER he may have been more resistant to the effects of having little sustenance, but the last time he had anything to eat was last night's dinner with Tifa and the kids and he wasn't exactly able to survive on sunlight.

_I hope they're alright. I hope they're safe._

If Denzel and Marlene had been taken too, then Cloud hoped that their abductors wouldn't be so cruel or stupid as to dump them in a random place in the wilderness like they had him. Tifa was different, being an adult who had learned how to survive in a variety of situations just like he had, but they were children and city children at that who only interacted with the world outside under adult supervision. Yes, Denzel had had to go through hell after Meteor, but scavenging in a dead city was a world away from trying to survive where anything could be poisonous, venomous, or monstrous.

While he was thinking and trudging, Cloud stopped paying attention to his surroundings. There hadn't been a monster in sight since he got there (and wasn't that weird in and of itself) and he'd long since come to terms with the fact that nobody was watching him, so when he reached the treeline he was halfway into the campsite before he was aware of it.

As he stood there, a stranger's sword pointed at his throat, he wasn't sure who was more shocked - him, or the four people he'd unwittingly disturbed.

_Oops._

"Who the hell are you?" the stranger with the sword asked gruffly, clearly trying to be threatening (considering he had managed to get the drop on a mako-enhanced man with issues and currently had a very sharp blade aimmed somewhere very vulnerable, Cloud couldn't really say he wasn't succeeding). He looked like he was about Cloud's age, with brown hair that looked like he'd been dragged through a forest backwards. The man's bright green eyes narrowed accusingly at him.

"My name's Cloud," he answered, slowly raising his hands in the hopes of appearing non-threatening himself . "I'm lost, and I didn't mean to disturb you. Could you tell me where I am?"

"Strip," the stranger said abruptly, and Cloud stepped back involuntarily.

"What?" he exclaimed. _He has to be kidding - I'm not getting naked for some gang of bandits!_ "I have pyjamas, slippers, and a sword, that's it. No food, no water, no gil - just what I'm standing up in."

His hand twitched towards his sword. _This could get nasty - if it does, it does._

"What?" the stranger asked with a strange expression on his face - almost as if Cloud was the lunatic. "I'm not robbing you. We need to check you aren't infected."

Looking closer, Cloud could see - _he's scared. What disease could he be scared of? Geostigma?_

"Infected with what?" Cloud asked, and hesitated a moment before adding, "and if I have to strip, do the two women need to be here?" He hadn't heard of any serious infections or diseases going around, not since Geostigma, and Reeve usually kept him up to date on those thanks to the travelling he did on his deliveries.

"How are you this ignorant? Didn't you see the Calamity fall? Didn't you feel the Planet heave? Have you not seen our people get infected by whatever was on that thing and turn into monsters?" the stranger asked, and Cloud could see the incredulity in his face.

"...No," was his eventual answer. "Look, I'll happily do whatever you need me to do to prove I don't have any disease, but if I could have some privacy...?" _Who knows - this might be something I need to report back to the WRO, so I'd better no alienate them._

"Vahana, Cenne, stand a little way away and look into the forest," the stranger directed. The two women got up and moved to go, and the other man got to his feet too.

"Any tricks, and I'll be as happy to skewer you as Orthe is," he said, drawing his own blade and holding it steady at his side.

Cloud nodded, and once the two women were stationed with their faces turned away he shrugged off the sword harness and unbuttoned his pyjama shirt. Under more normal circumstances he might have felt embarrassed by what he was wearing, but he'd much prefer the coverage and protection from Yuffie's gag gift than being naked in front of two total strangers.

Once the shirt was off, the first stranger - Orthe, Cloud presumed - told him to turn slowly with his hands in the air. As uncomfortably vulnerable and exposed as he felt, Cloud didn't really have much of a choice if he didnt want to start and all-out brawl, and when instructed to continue with his trousers then perform the same turn he swallowed his pride, sacrificed his dignity, and did so. Fortunately, Orthe genuinely didn't seem to be aiming to humiliate or degrade him. The moment he was sure Cloud didn't show any symptoms of whatever he was looking for, he allowed him to dress and reclaim his sword.

"I'd apologise, but it's a necessity," Orthe said once Cloud had dressed and the other man had gone to retrieve the women. "We've just lost the majority of our caravan to the infection. Over eighty of us, and there's just us four left as far as we know - the rest just -" he stopped, shaking his head helplessly. "They turned into something else."

"What were you looking for?" Cloud asked, trying for a gentle tone despite being as red as a tomato and feeling slightly violated. _I at least deserve to know what this disease is meant to look like._

"Marks," one of the women said. Her eyes were the same intense green as Orthe's, but her hair was cropped close to her head and was a silver hue. Cloud hid a shudder, remembering the last time he'd seen people with that combination of colours. "Typically, patches of scales or feathers, or webbing. Sometimes bone spurs on the shoulders, spine, or elbows."

"This is my sister, Vahana," Orthe introduced slinging an arm around her for a quick squeeze of a hug and letting go. "Her friend, Cenne, is over there," he waved in the other woman's direction, "and Cenne's husband, Kenhelm, is the final member of our party."

Cenne was a petite and pretty young woman, but from the fiercely tamed braid of her black hair to the thick leather gloves and armour it was clear that she wasn't a woman to dismiss. _She reminds me of Tifa._

Her husband was a thin man with a short ponytail gathering his blond hair out of the way, and although he had a sword Cloud was inclined to think it was a new addition from the way he held it.

"Pleased to meet you," Cloud answered softly, thinking over what they'd told him so far.

These people... they'd spoken about the Planet heaving and the Calamity falling, but that might be a reference to the final battle with Sephiroth when Holy and Meteor duelled in the skies over Midgar. The illness that they spoke about sounded like something to do with Jenova, but at the same time it didn't match the symptoms for Geostigma and by this point there was nowhere with enough J-cells in a high enough concentration with a high enough amount of mako to spontaneously mutate people into monsters. Something was nagging in the back of his mind, but he couldn't quite piece it together.

_Or I don't want to, _he admitted to himself.

"Do you have anywhere to go?" Cenne asked, her voice kind.

"Actually, I don't know where I am. I need to get back to Midgar, but depending on where I am I could get to another city and contact a friend to help me out," he replied, choosing honesty.

"Midgar? Is that a new village settlement? I haven't been able to keep up, what with the boom since the Calamity," Kenhelm told him, and the bottom fell out of Cloud's stomach.

"Can you tell me the name of the largest city near here?" Cloud asked, heart starting to pound.

"Well, Ardethusa's the largest Cetra settlement, and that's not that far even if you do have to take a boat north. But if you're happy with a Leniter settlement, then I suppose it would be Nifel to the west," he offered.

"A... Leniter settlement?" Cloud probed.

"You are out of touch, aren't you?" Cenna said, not expecting a reply. "The ones who've settled completely, who can't hear the Planet anymore. Since the Calamity, there's been more and more choosing that life instead of travelling, separating from us Cetra a lot - we're the ones most affected, but we can pass the infection on to a Leniter person easily enough and they've started barricading us out."

Cloud stayed silent. He'd never heard the term Leniter before, but Cetra was... definitely familiar. These people were Cetra, and from the way they were talking he was sure that they were not the only ones. There was no Midgar, but there was a Nifel - an old name for his old hometown, Nibelheim. If Nifel was to the west, and Ardethusa was the Forgotten Capital, or somewhere like it...

_It can't be._

But, Cloud had to admit, it was looking more and more likely. They talked about the Calamity and an infection that mutated Cetra into monsters like it was happening now because it was. Somehow, through some impossible miracle, Cloud had been transplanted back to the time just after Jenova first fell to the Planet.

_Or am I just going insane?_

"I think I'm a bit further from home than I'd realised," he said after a moment. "I think I'll head for... for Ardethusa?" _Here's hoping I pronounced that right._

"That's where we're headed too," Vahana volunteered. "If you like, you can come with us?"

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Why not? It's better to travel in numbers nowadays, and if you can use that hunk of metal you call a sword as easily as you carry it then we'd be glad to have you," Vahana replied.

"She's not wrong," Orthe agreed. "The roads are dangerous, and we're not in a position to be picky about our travelling companions beyond making sure people aren't infected."

"Then, thank you," Cloud said. "I'll take you up on that."

_Though who knows what I'll do when we get there._

A/N: So, this is happening. I have a plotline written up and everything! This is going to be long, and I am looking for a beta reader to help me keep things in line. I hope you enjoy reading!


	3. Chapter 3

Night had begun to edge its way into the day, the shade of the trees encouraging the feeling of the day coming to a close. Although true darkness was still one, perhaps two hours away the light was still beginning to fade from its afternoon glow and travellers would have to start preparing for nightfall soon. Cloud had come across the Cetra just as they had stopped for the evening, early enough that they had only just begun to build the campfire.

Despite the unfriendly introduction, as soon as it had been settled that Cloud would be travelling with them their behaviour and attitude became a lot more welcoming. He also soon realised that they were much more prepared for a long stretch on the road than he'd initially assumed.

Although the four Cetra had had to run on short notice from the dying, mutated monsters that had once been their family and friends, they had benefitted from being culturally nomadic; they had been able to take their two caravans with them, which were stocked with all the things they would need to survive, and survive comfortably at that. Both caravans were painted in swirling greens and browns to blend in with the surroundings on the road, and inside every inch of space had been allocated to a definite purpose.

He was invited into one to change clothes after a slightly uncomfortable conversation about his attire, where he had had to convince the Cetra that no, he wasn't particularly attached to the thin pyjamas and that no, he definitely wouldn't be offended if he was given something more substantial to wear. Both Orothe and Kenhelm had donated items of their own spare clothing to give him a warm, pre-loved set of clothes in a gesture of kindness that Cloud genuinely appreciated. At the end of the haphazard fashion show, Cloud matched the two men in wearing thick woollen trousers, a linen shirt, and a sleeveless leather jerkin with sturdy leather boots - if it was a bit snug across the shoulders, a touch tight across his toes, and if his ankles could feel a bit of a breeze, Cloud wasn't going to complain.

_I'd better double-check that I can still move freely in this, though_, he thought to himself, and resolved to get First Tsurugi out that night to run through some drills and make sure that he had the flexibility he needed in a fight.

From the same caravan that Cloud changed in, Kenhelm pulled out an array of cooking implements and spices to make the evening meal. Someone had managed to bag two large birds earlier in the day, and they would feature as the meal along with some potatoes that Vahana had dug out from a compartment in her caravan.

Living life on the road from birth, or so Cloud presumed, had gifted the four with an unnerving efficiency of movement that appeared to border on telepathy as they divided up the tasks involved in setting up camp properly. Kenhelm and Vahana were clearly on cooking duty as one was plucking feathers while the other was monitoring the frying potatoes; Orothe was taking care of the caravans and the bedrolls. Cenne had migrated over to the chocobos that pulled the caravans, tending to them with a brisk competency that wouldn't have been out of place at any commercial chocobo stable.

As he stood in the middle of the campsite feeling like a particularly useless spare part, a hoarse "kweh!" led Cloud's eyes to drift over to the two chocobos. One blue, one black, and (if Cloud had any eye for it and he was fairly sure that he did) both female, they were grazing idly at the grass near where they had been tethered, picking more than feeding as Cenne checked over the harnesses. It was the blue that had called out, cocking her head with a curiosity typical of her species.

"Hush now," Cenne soothed absently. "No need to sound off. Here, introduce yourself or they'll sound an alarm any time you get near them."

Cloud slowly approached at her perfunctory wave, his arms deliberately relaxed at his side and his palms facing towards the birds. Standing directly in front, he allowed the blue to look him over and nudge him until she was satisfied that he wasn't a threat before bringing one hand up to carefully preen the feathers at the top of her head with his fingers.

"Good girl," he said with a smile as she leaned her head heavily into his fingers so he was scratching exactly as she wanted him to, "good girl. You like that, don't you?"

"You're good with them, aren't you?" Cenne asked after he'd fussed over the chocobo for a few minutes.

"No jokes, please, trust me when I say I've heard them all," he responded dryly. "But yes. I like them, and they seem to like me back. Should I introduce myself to the black?"

"Go ahead."

He repeated the ritual with the black chocobo, who seemed much more relaxed and far less interested in the new human than the blue. She still went through the nudging and accepted the preening, but it was clear that she was happy that her friend and her human had both vouched for him and didn't care much beyond that. Cloud decided that he liked her more because of it.

"They're gorgeous," he said truthfully.

"They're good girls," she demurred. "They're as much family as - well, as Kenhelm is."

"I'm glad you were able to rescue them."

"They rescued us, if I'm being truthful. They knew to leave long before Vahana told us to, and didn't object for a second when we ran them for miles trying to escape," she answered, looking straight at the harness in front of her to avoid eye contact. "You have to trust your chocobo and your family in this life, and out of those two the chocobo is the only one that won't love anyone but you. So you love them in return."

"I'm sorry you lost so many," he said, although he felt it was a bit of a pathetic offering in the face of her loss.

"So are we," she told him. "It was only a month ago, but it feels like yesterday and years ago all at the same time. Still, as long and you're alive you can move forward, no matter what you have to leave behind."

"I understand." _I know it first hand._

"I'm telling you this because I know you've lost people too," she said, and at Cloud's unwilling wince she continued, "none of us will press you for any details, but we will be happy to listen if you want or need an ear. Loss is a common song in the Lifestream nowadays, and we're simply grateful that our paths crossed with you, as we will be grateful for any survivor we come across in the future. We don't need them to justify themselves to us, any more than we need to justify ourselves to you."

Cloud very carefully thought absolutely nothing. He rubbed his eyes free of the dust that the chocobos had kicked up - _of the burning, prickling sensation in them - _and coughed before saying a quiet, but heartfelt "thank you".

_Don't think of the ones left behind. Don't think of the ones that aren't here; that I might not see again. And don't think about good it feels to be welcomed without having to prove my value first._

"No problem," she waved him off. "But last point to make - the chocobos can't tell any secrets."

That made him laugh, but he was relieved when Kenhelm announced that the food was ready. He resolved to make sure that he did what he could to look after these people that had so easily and kindly accomodated and cared for him.

_While I'm here, at least._

A/N: I'm aware that this is a bit of a filler chapter - I'm going to be honest and say that we'll still be at the campsite in the next chapter, but they'll be moving fairly quickly after that to the Forgotten City. I'm just posting what I've got now to keep my momentum up.

I'd also like to clarify, because this always worries me when I read a story with a lot of OC's - there will be no romance between Cloud and any OC. There may be romance later on, but it wouldn't be with an OC. We will also see more canon characters eventually, so hopefully I won't be scaring people off with their current absence!


	4. Chapter 4

The food was remarkably good for something boiled and roasted over a campfire. The meat was flavourful and tender, if only lightly spiced, and even the potatoes were creamy instead of the powdery dry things Cloud used to buy in Edge.

_Benefits of growing on a Planet that wasn't half-dead,_ Cloud thought. _Wonder how long it will take before potatoes like these grow again?_

They ate in relative silence, but Cloud made a point of complimenting Kenhelm and Vahana on the food. Kenhelm took it proudly, commenting that it was nice for his efforts to be appreciated for once - Orothe gave an exaggerated groan that Cloud took as evidence that it was a common complaint, along with the laughter it provoked from the two women.

Twilight had fallen by the time they finished and were preparing for the night.

The normal schedule, from what Cloud pieced together, meant three watches and one sleeping through the night. With the addition of another person, that allowed for either two to sleep through or to go to a standard four watches instead. Cloud wasn't too surprised when they opted for the latter after a quick but brutal argument about who the second person to sleep through would be.

"Cloud can do second watch, and I can do third," Kenhelm announced as soon as Orothe claimed first watch, to his wife's raised eyebrow.

"Is that up for discussion, love?" she said with a hint of amusement.

"Um -" he flushed, clearly not expecting her to say anything in response to his declaration.

"It's fine," Cloud interrupted. "I'm fine with that."

He'd realised early on that although the others were welcoming, Kenhelm was still wary of him. Not so unfriendly that he wouldn't sacrifice a spare pair of trousers for Cloud's wardrobe, perhaps, or skimp on his portion of the meal, but still guarded in a way that Cloud could appreciate. He was a complete stranger, after all, and the cameraderie of strangers on the road could easily turn tragic if the wrong people were trusted. He probably planned to wake up when the watch changed and keep an eye on him, or try and convince Orothe not to give him a watch on the first night after they met. It's what he would have done; they didn't know enough about him to know if he'd fall asleep or not, let alone risk him murdering them in their sleep for their goods.

"Actually, I'll take third," Vahana interrupted. "You can take fourth, it's Cenne's turn to sleep through."

"Why?" Kenhelm asked. "I'm supposed to be third tonight anyway."

"No, you're supposed to be on the dawn watch. Besides, you're useless at waking up on time and if Cloud misses waking you up he could end up doing half your watch for you," she pointed out. "Unless that's what you were aiming for?"

Kenhelm glowed red again, but the indignance on his face made it clear that hadn't been on his mind. Cloud decided he liked the prickly man despite his suspicion; he seemed to be silently protective of his own, and he obviously wasn't someone who would take advantage for his own benefit. His wife's benefit, maybe, but his own? Unlikely.

"Alright," the Cetra conceded. "I'll take fourth."

Cloud was often thankful for his ability to sleep wherever and whenever the opportunity arose; whether it was his soft bed in the flat above Seventh Heaven, or the creaky floor in Aerith's drafty church, or a rocky outcrop in some uncharted area of the world map while hunting a lunatic, he could and had nodded off anywhere. It meant that although there was more than one stone sticking into him he was soon unconscious.

It also meant he was dreaming.

_Greenandgreenandblueandgreen - shapes and shadows on a mirror of green on a river of blue - crystalline screaming and a low long moan a discord and a symphony - sharp spikes of ice in his head and a sluggishly bleeding wound in his heart - _

_a sight of a thing a monster an alien a wrong wrong wrong thing __**pushed**__ into his brain -_

_he saw a thing, touching touching touching, reaching out and __**violating**__ and changing a steady harmony of a billion lives and memories one by one by one by one by one by -_

_he saw a man with wings he didn't know, a man with scales covering his face and back and legs and mouth, a woman with bruises for eyes and more arms than was right, a thing that was __**nothing human anymore**__ -_

_but he wasn't there and didn't see, he was being __**forced**__ to know, a pressure in his head growing and growing __**and growing**__ -_

_he heard a woman a voice _

_he __**knew**__ that voice_

_was it a memory_

_Cloud?_

"Cloud? Cloud, you're up next," Cloud heard Orothe say close to his ear, and opened his eyes to see the man leaning over him with an arm outstretched to shake him. As he did so, Orothe jerked his hand back and swore softly. "Your eyes - your eyes are glowing?"

_Shit._

"Huh?" he said, over exaggerating his yawn to feign a tiredness he no longer felt (and hide the instinctive motion of his hand towards his sword, and giving himself a few precious seconds to centre himself in the real world, instead of whatever that dream was). _This is more awake than I wanted to be three seconds after opening my eyes._ "Um, yes? I fell into a mako spring when I was younger, and it had a few side-effects that stayed after I recovered."

_Well, I'm not totally lying at least. I did fall in the Lifestream, and there were definitely side-effects. It's just that they weren't SOLDIER strength and SOLDIER eyes._

"Well, I guess it's not unheard of..." he trailed off, still staring. "What are the other side-effects?"

"I'm stronger than most," he whispered back - _understatement, but..._ \- "and I'm more durable. Injuries heal a bit faster, I can go a bit longer without food or water, small things. Small changes."

_...well, the amnesia isn't exactly ongoing, and I'm not catatonic or disassociating or being controlled as a puppet by a madman that used to be a hero any more._

"I've heard of things like this, but nothing so... complete," he said quietly, wonder in his voice. "It's incredible - a gift from the Planet." After a moment, Cloud could see him come to some kind of decision. "When we get to Aredthusa, if you don't have plans beyond getting to the city, it might be worth your while if you stay with us. There's some people we're hoping to meet, who are the reason we're heading there in the first place. They need people willing to fight; why not think about volunteering with us? Just think about it, I don't need an answer now. It'll be a good two or three weeks before we get there."

_Another fight? And I think I can guess against who - or what._ Despite the sinking feeling in his stomach, Cloud nodded. _If I'm right, maybe - maybe I can change things. Maybe some things that happened just - don't need to happen. Even if... even if I'm not there to see what changes, it would be worth it._

"Good man," Orothe clapped a warm hand on his shoulder. "Now, I'm off to sleep. Vahana's next, wake her when it's time for her watch."

"Thanks," he responded, heaving himself as silently as he could to his feet. He made his way away from the other sleeping members of the party to keep watch as Orothe settled himself down.

He waited until he was sure the other man was asleep before going over the dream he'd had - Cloud was unfortunately more than familiar with the sensation of something that wasn't him forcing a thought or instruction or memory into his head, and that had definitely felt more like a message than a normal dream. Trying to piece together what he'd dreamt was more difficult than he expected, with parts of it slipping away as soon as he tried to focus on it and other parts becoming hyper-real in the dark of the night. The feelings he'd had of being injured were some of the former, and from the fragments that remained with him he was grateful for it.

But the alien shapes that he'd seen, the people who had been changed, meant that Cloud was certain that the images were a warning about Jenova and what she had done so far. He hoped that the intrusion had been from the Planet, rather than the alien herself, as there wasn't all that much he could do to ensure that he remained under his own control if she decided to impose her will on him. She wasn't being controlled by Sephiroth any more, after all, and Sephiroth's arrogance and tendency to underestimate him had been his saving grace more than once.

About half an hour passed with Orothe's snores before Cloud unhooked his sword from its harness and rested it against a nearby tree. There was a reasonably open space in the eyeline of the camp, and he had identified it as the best place to run through a few stretches while on watch. His mako-sensitive hearing would make sure he was aware of most things that lurked in the night long before he saw them; it was safe enough to check that his new clothes wouldn't restrict his movements too much in a fight.

It would also work off some of the tension that had built up after the dream.

Carefully and slowly, as unthreateningly as he could considering he was sure Kenhelm was probably watching him, he moved through familiar stretches and lunges that would test the limits of his ill-fitting clothes. He was pleasantly surprised - he could still kick someone in the face without embarrassing himself with split trousers, and he had a wider range of motion in the jerkin than expected as long as he didn't button it. It was odd, wearing something that seemed so fragile and so restrictive at the same time. Half the time, he felt like he was on the verge of popping a seam. The other half, he felt like the clothes were a prison in themselves.

He was in the process of completing a set of lunges when he heard one of the sleeping Cetra cough involuntarily from their bedroll. Cloud was aware that someone else was awake, but when he turned (as a natural part of his stretches, as well as to see for himself who it was) he was surprised to see Vahana was the one that had been watching him. Her eyes were screwed determinedly closed in a way that made it very clear she wasn't asleep. In the dark it would have been difficult for an unenhanced person to know that he'd seen them, so he wasn't too concerned about her realising he was aware of her; in a way, it was comforting that at least two of them knew what a sensible level of precaution was.

The watch passed uneventfully, and when he went to wake Vahana she put on an almost believable pretence of having been woken up from a deep sleep. He didn't say anything to her about her keeping watch over him, and if he had any further dreams he didn't remember them the next morning.

A/N: Thank you for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

Over the next two weeks, life settled into an easy routine as they travelled slowly to the coast. The plan was for them to pick up a ship at one of the ports to cross the ocean before making the rest of their way to Aredthusa. Orothe had them avoid the settlements that they saw in the distance to reduce the chances of getting infected, but with the stores they already had and the abundance of game Cloud found himself better fed than he used to be back in his own time.

As they moved north, Cloud began to notice something strange. Typically he would have expected to see monsters almost everywhere, popping up with unnerving regularity precisely when you didn't want them to show, but he had seen hardly any.

The general consensus in the group as far as monsters went seemed to be: if it can be outrun, outrun it; if it can be scared off, scare it; only if it absolutely has to be fought, fight it - at least until Cloud ended up as the sole fighter in three separate skirmishes, at which point he realised the last part had changed to: if it absolutely has to be fought, send out Cloud.

_I'm a mercenary again, aren't I? Funny how things come a full circle._

Their first encounter with infected Cetra came without warning in the middle of the day. Cloud had been on edge for a while before they appeared, having picked up on the chocobos' restlessness. The Cetra were equally twitchy, so when Orothe slowed his pace to match Cloud's he was almost eager to get it over with.

"Keep your hand on your sword," he warned. "Something's stalking us, and I'm almost certain it's the infected."

"How can you be sure?" Cloud asked, unhooking First Tsurugi and swinging the blade round to rest the flat wedge on his shoulder.

"The Planet is... repulsed? It's an unnatural thing, and nothing wants to be near it. For it to be so easily felt, there must be at least a small group, maybe ten, and fully possessed by the sickness."

"Right," Cloud said, thinking. "Any idea where they are?"

"Behind us, that's about all I can say," he answered with a frown.

"If we run, odds are high that they'll chase. If we pretend we haven't seen them, they'll either come out of their own accord or wait until we're asleep, depending on their intelligence. Either way we're in for a fight."

The terrain was just forested enough to provide shelter to the things stalking them, but the trees were rapidly thinning out as the five continued to travel, everyone on high alert. Cloud kept his eyes on the right of the road where the trees were still reasonably densely packed, but he could see flickers of movement all the same.

The moment they ceased to have shelter, the infected emerged to start their hunt in earnest.

It had been a while since Cloud had seen makonoids - people mutated after being subjected to immense amounts of mako - and he had hoped he never would again, but these infected Cetra were definitely triggering a few memories. They moved fast, they moved weird, and they were clawing up the earth as they raced towards the caravans.

Some had scales instead of skin, and most had odd spurs of bone on their elbows or coming out of their shoulder blades. They were a range of colours from bruise purple to swamp green, their eyes all-black with no discernable pupil or iris. Most had claws, and many bared the vicious teeth of a carnivore as they made chase. Not one of them looked identical to any of the others, but all of them carried some trace of their former humanity - a bracelet that hadn't yet fallen off, or the remnants of filthy, torn clothes clinging to their frame. Cloud would have pitied them, but he knew better than most how irretrievable their minds were.

The chocobos were running flat out, but with the weight of the caravans and the people slowing them down it was easy to see the monsters gaining on them fast.

Cloud leaned back and shouted over the noise, "Keep going!" and jumped off the back of the caravan.

The monsters could run fast, but so could he. As long as he kept them focused on him, the caravans would be safe. Unlinking one of the blades from the main body of First Tsurugi so he could dual wield, Cloud adopted a defensive stance and waited for them to come to him.

The frontrunners hit him a few seconds later, stinking and snarling as they struck. He fended them off with the sword in his left hand - they had enough intelligence to flinch, but not enough to run or stop attacking. The smell was the worst thing; necrotizing flesh and the acid reek of mako combined with the thick, sweet smell that characterised a Geostigma victim. It was practically an assault on its own.

Aiming to get things over with as soon as possible, he slashed out with his left to sever one creature's spine, the blade neatly slicing through flesh and bone as Cloud swung it around. The main blade in his right defended against another, but Cloud still had to bend his back into an aching curve to avoid a swipe from a third. Numbers were the problem; he would have to kill fast and clean to avoid being overwhelmed.

When one got too close to his side, he lashed out with a kick to put it back into his sword's range. Stepping back at the same time, he swung one blade over his head to carve it down the middle while sweeping the other back in a wide quarter-circle. Two more died, and one more lost an arm - it wasn't deterred by the missing limb, apparently unconcerned with pain, and darted forward to slash with the remaining hand only to be dispatched with a quick thrust to the torso.

Six more were about to come into range.

He looked back at the caravans, and narrowed his eyes.

One had managed to get past, ignoring him in favour of more bountiful prey. Cloud could see it running flat out, its fists pounding on the ground as it hurtled forward, getting closer and closer to the caravans. Relinking his blades, he held the complete sword parallel to the ground as he started to run.

The monsters may have Jenova's virus in them, but he had all the strength and speed of a SOLDIER.

His feet slammed against the ground, propelling him forward faster and faster and faster. The distance between him and monster vanished in moments as he went flat out to reach them.

He could hear a scream - well, more of a shrill battle cry if he was honest - from Kenhelm, who was hanging over the side of the caravan with his sword, waving it about, and a corner of his mind noted that he should really give him some lessons in how to use it.

It was over in a moment. His sword was sharp, and the monster was just a monster after all - one swipe and its torso was severed from its legs, forcing it to faceplant on the floor in a way that was almost funny. Cloud made sure it was over by stabbing his sword down and severing its head.

The remaining six were still fast approaching, so Cloud went to meet them. He had all the advantage - his speed was greater, his strength was greater, and he still had human intelligence. Moving his blade in a long sweeping arcs, the weight driving the edge through them like they paper, he rapidly dispatched the remainder. Another tried to bypass him - it died with his sword in its back.

Once life had left all of them, Cloud turned back to make his way to where the others had stopped the caravans. As he approached, Orothe called out to him.

"Wait there!"

"Are you alright?" Vahana blurted out as she jumped off the caravan, ignoring her brother. She paused a little way away, clearly wanting to check for herself that he wasn't currently bleeding out somewhere but equally obviously unwilling to get too close.

"Cloud, I'm sorry, you'll need to get clean and we'll have to burn the clothes before we can get any closer. The infection can be carried in the blood, and there's too much on your sword and on your jerkin to be safe. Have you been cut anywhere? Did they bite you at all?" Orothe asked. Although he was essentially telling him to stay away because he was unclean, Cloud could see from the aborted movements of his hands and arms that he was finding it difficult to restrain himself from checking him over, just as his sister was.

"I'm fine," he told them. "Just dirty - no cuts, bites, or even bruises. They didn't manage to land a hit on me."

"I'm glad," Vahana said, with a barely there smile that did nothing to hide her worried frown. "Go to the river, get cleaned off. We'll get a new set of clothes for you, and Orothe will bring you soap." She was clearly still upset, but Cloud just nodded.

"I'll be quick. We don't want more of them coming while you wait for me," he pointed out.

.

.

AN:/ I'm going to be doing a full rewrite soon; I'll be upping the world-building, which I thought would be the boring bit for everyone, and increasing the detail on the different civilisations and the differences between the world Cloud knows and the one he's been thrown into.

(By the way - Cetra can spontaneously get infected, or they can get infected through periods of close contact with the infected. Non-Cetra can't just develop the infection, there has to be transfer of bodily fluids or contaminated waste. This is the sort of world-building I'll be putting in the text in the rewrite, like a good author.)

Thank you for reading so far!


	6. Chapter 6

Sorry for the earlier formatting issues! Genuinely wasn't there originally. Thanks for letting me know!

Chapter 6

Not all their days and nights were spent avoiding or fighting makonoids, of course. On the quieter nights, when they were tired instead of exhausted, when they had been successful in foraging and hunting and the chocobos were settled, Orothe would sit Cloud down with the intention of teaching him how the Cetra communed with the Planet.

It had started after Cloud had shown interest in how Orothe knew the makonoids were nearby, and then grown confused at the elaborate explanations Kenhelm had offered up instead. It was decided without much intervention from Cloud that it would be a better idea for Orothe to try and teach him the technique, to see if he would be able to. All four were fairly hopeful that he would be a natural thanks to his preexisting connection to the Planet. It would just take time.

It was frustrating at first, but as Cloud eased into the idea that demanding results was pointlessly draining and the only thing he needed to do was listen, he began to notice changes. Orothe would start with simple breathing exercises that reminded him of the meditation rituals Tifa would perform each evening as they travelled, inherited from her teacher Zangan as a way to clear her mind and centre herself in her body after the rigours of the day.

The deep, slow, calm breathing exercises did send him halfway to sleep some nights, and Orothe would always notice and send him off to his bedroll with the promise of trying again the next night.

On good nights, however, he would - well, it wasn't _hearing_, not exactly.

It was a little like feeling the drumming of a heartbeat; the thrumming of the blood under the skin. It wasn't really audible without pressing your ear close, but when you touched a wrist to take a pulse you almost invented a sound to better understand it. Or perhaps more like feeling a deep bass beat when deaf? It was hard for Cloud to explain to himself, and his attempts to describe it to the others was pitiful, but fortunately they understood.

It was very different to listening to the Planet through Bugenhagen's technology back in Cosmo Canyon.

He still couldn't quite determine the difference between living things, though.

They travelled on, and on, and on - it was several weeks before they saw any other person who hadn't been overwhelmed by infection, and when they did it happened to be a fairly large group of forty or fifty. All had caravans, and appeared to be Cetra like his companions, but for some reason Vahana objected fiercely to joining up with them.

I'm just not comfortable with it," she finally admitted on being pressed for a reason. "Who knows who they are? And who's to say they aren't already harbouring infection? It's too much of a risk."

When it became clear she wasn't moving, Orothe sighed in resignation.

"Fine. We've got enough to keep ourselves going, I suppose we don't need to go with them. But you'll have to get over this before we reach the city - there will be a lot more people and we can't inspect them all just to satisfy your fears."

"No! No, that's fine, I'll be fine in Aredthusa," Vahana replied, looking far more grateful and relieved than Cloud expected.

As they hid to let the caravan train pass by, he wondered what she'd seen, or felt. They looked normal enough; quiet, perhaps, but that wasn't surprising if they were trying to avoid monsters. They were just people, nothing particularly special about them at all.

About a week later, the party was grateful for whatever had spooked Vahana.

It wasn't obvious at first what had happened; the road had split near a low ravine so one branch went down and would twist eastward while the other went high and straight. The view wasn't perfect, but the two branches ran alongside each other for just long enough that they could look down and see traces of the wreckage.

They could see pieces - pieces of wood, of fabric, of skin and bone. Cloud heard the makonoids before he saw them, but they were too occupied by their easy meal to go after living prey.

"Let's go. There's nobody who could be alive down there," Vahana told them, voice hushed and eyes red.

She was right. It looked - and smelled - like it had happened two or three days ago, whatever had happened. Perhaps one of them had been overwhelmed by Jenova and had mutated into a feral monster, passing the infection on as they attacked. Perhaps they'd been set on by a pack.

At this point, it no longer mattered.

They carried onwards, and didn't stop until well into the night. Although it was unlikely that they'd be chased, the memory of the ruined, halfeaten bodies of Chocobos and people kept them moving until the chill eased enough for them to allow their own Chocobos the rest.


	7. Chapter 7

It took less time than Cloud had expected from that point to reach the city of Aredthusa.

It also apparently took a lot less for a settlement to be considered a city by the Cetra than he was used to.

There were hundreds of caravans set up around a lake that was twice the size of the one that remained in his time, but few permanent buildings. What the encampment did have, though, was its atmosphere. The thrum of the Planet was far more evident here than anywhere else Cloud had been so far, teasing on the edge of his hearing and threatening to give him a headache as he walked next to the caravans while they progressed closer to where they had to register.

"It's not exactly a Leniter settlement, with brick and clay buildings, but it's ours. The ever-changing city, it's called, and for good reason," Kenhelm called to Cloud from his perch on the front of his caravan. "There's always caravans here, but everyone comes and goes as they please. Last time we were here was, let me think, two - no, two and a half years ago."

"You can give him the lecture when we've registered," Orothe told him from his own caravan. "We need to pay attention here."

"Usually there's a queue," Kenhelm told Cloud, only slightly more quietly. "I can guess why there's not one now."

"Hey! Who's in charge?" a burly older man shouted over. "Come here, there's a new process in place."

"That's me," Orothe said, handing his reins over to Vahana. "What do you need?"

"Stay back, thanks," he was told. "Usual information needed for the books - names of individuals, name of caravan, expected duration of stay. Then on to an inspection in the red caravan over there, just to be sure you're not bringing in the infection. After that, we'll give you a place."

As Orothe filled in the details for the book, Cloud braced himself for the inspection. Unpleasant as it was, it was necessary for the safety of the city and he understood that - but if it was the same as the inspection he'd been subjected to when he first met up with the group of Cetra it would be at best embarrassing.

"Huh. Big sword," Cloud's inspector, an older man of maybe sixty, commented as he took First Tsurugi off his back and shrugged off the harness. "How can you carry it?"

"I'm strong," Cloud said, not afraid of stating the obvious.

"Right. How?" he repeated.

"I fell into a mako pool as a child. I'm stronger than most, and more durable too," Cloud replied briefly as he removed his shoes. "Any other questions?"

"No. But a gift from the Planet like that is a rare thing. Are you joining the army?"

"Planning to." Cloud removed his jerkin and shirt, folding them over the chair that was thoughtfully provided and wishing the man would just shut up.

"Good, good. Stop there, I'll be inspecting your top half first and it's too chilly to be in your altogether for long."

_Okay, maybe you can keep talking._

Fifteen excruciating minutes later - or possibly several hours, Cloud couldn't tell - the inspection was over. While he appreciated the man's professionalism and detachment, Cloud hoped he never had to see him or speak to him again.

"You're all clear," he said finally, after Cloud had dressed himself, and held out a thin blue ribbon with what looked like a small coin with a hole punched through it. "This is the token showing you've been inspected and confirmed clear. If you lose it, you get reinspected. If you leave and re-enter the city, you get reinspected. If you meet with someone who is infected or hasn't been inspected, you get reinspected. So, just stick with the people you know and try not to go out of bounds. Good luck."

Taking the ribbon, Cloud headed back out and found that apart from Cenne he was the last one out.

"What's taking so long?" Vahana asked the man who was dealing with their registration.

"It's Luca, she's probably just chatting," he replied dismissively. "She'll be out soon."

After a few more minutes of Vahana getting steadily more nervous, Cenne came out with her own blue ribbon and token.

"Sorry - she was telling me about the new location for the market, it's gone west where there's more room for the stalls to be spaced out," she said apologetically when Vahana hugged her. "Steady!"

"Just got worried," was the reply before she was released.

"We're over to the north-west," Orothe said, interrupting. "Someone left a couple of days ago, so there's a space closer to the centre than we would have otherwise got. Benefits of being small, I suppose."

When they got to their allotted space, Orothe told them what he'd learned while waiting for them to come out of inspection.

Apparently, the army would wait a month more before moving out - there had been reports of more caravans making their way to the capital, and they needed all the help they could get. The Calamity had no such restriction, of course, and for every report of a hale and healthy caravan on the way there was another reporting on an outbreak in a settlement, or wreckage found on the road.

Fortifying the encampment was therefore the main priority; nobody entered without inspection, and suspect cases were quarantined. For Cloud and the others it was hardly an imposition, as they'd been inspected and now just needed to stay together in the city. Nothing except the prospect of reinspection stopped them leaving, either; they could always give up and continue travelling to who-knew where.

As a result, it was easy for Vahana to get up out of her bedroll one morning two weeks after they arrived and walk out of the encampment altogether.

Cloud didn't realise her intentions at first. She had woken him when rustling about gathering her things, but he'd assumed she'd gone to relieve herself. Fifteen minutes later, he sat up and looked over at the space she'd claimed as her own. It was empty.

Grabbing his own things, abandoning what he couldn't pack quickly, he made his way outside. By now she had perhaps a twenty minute head start, but it was the twenty minute head start of an unenhanced woman with a heavy pack in the dark trying to be quiet and invisible; as someone used to travelling on his feet with a weight on his back and enhanced with excellent night vision and superhuman strength, it was simple for Cloud to catch up.

Instead of challenging her as soon as he saw her, he hung back and watched. She never looked back.

As she was heading north, he could guess her destination. What he couldn't figure out was why she wasn't waiting for the rest of the Cetra. The Northern Crater was their chosen battlefield - why not wait another two weeks and travel as one of hundreds? On foot and on her own, this wouldn't be an easy journey so why was she attempting it?

When she paused for her first rest since leaving, with the sun high in the sky, he approached. Vahana didn't seem surprised when she saw him - she just smiled wryly.

"I hoped it wasn't Orothe. I'm not going back, Cloud."

"Alright," he shrugged. "I'm coming with you."

"I had a feeling you'd say that. Can I persuade you to go at all?"

"No," he told her firmly. "But, if you could tell me why I'd appreciate it."

"The Calamity must be stopped, and the army won't succeed. I've thought for a while now that you might understand, but - it sounds so ridiculous!" she said, laughing without a trace of humour in her voice.

"What does?" Cloud asked, as calm as if he was dealing with a spooked chocobo.

"I've - I've done this before," she said, still with a smile on her face - almost as if she was daring him to call her a liar. "I lived this before. Or maybe I dreamed it? And we fought, and we failed. The Calamity won, and began eating away at the heart of the Planet. I was one of the last survivors of the battle, until I woke up and it was five years earlier. Do I sound mad?"

"I - no. No, you don't," he said, feeling a little giddy himself with the implications this had. "The same thing happened to me, almost. I was sent a lot further back."

"You...did?"

The smile plastered on Vahana's face finally faded to be replaced with a look of the purest, most desperate hope Cloud had ever seen.

"Mn. I'm from a lot further forward, and in the time I come from the Calamity had been defeated by the Cetra. It was our stupidity that revived her, but she was weak compared to now. She couldn't do what she's doing now," he told her.

"So... I won?" Vahana asked.

"If you were the one to defeat her, then yes. You bought us thousands of years, and - Vahana?"

Cloud reached out to the hunched over woman, resting his hand on her shoulder as she laughed through her tears.

"I'm going to win," she whispered. "I won't fail. I won't."

"So, what's the plan?" Cloud asked a while later, after Vahana's tears had dried and they had started to walk again on the trail ahead of them. Vahana sucked in a deep breath, pausing for a few minutes as she put her thoughts together before responding.

"I- I'm going to try and _make_ the Planet react to it. If things continue, the Travellers will awaken and reduce us to the Lifestream, before carrying us across the void to a new world. That's not a bad thing", she hurriedly added, "it's just - they'll carry the Calamity with us. We'd be corrupted long before we reached a new world that could accept us. This Planet would have died, and any other world the Travellers took us to would die too.

If we could - if _I_ could make the Planet reject the Calamity, if I could persuade it to - oh, I don't know. The Planet has so much that can destroy and renew. Fire. Lightning. Floods probably wouldn't be a good idea, but ice? Maybe an earthquake would be pointless, but a landslide?"

She looked over at Cloud as though hoping he had an answer for her; he didn't. From what he remembered, Jenova had been encased in rock when she was excavated by Gast and Hojo, but that wasn't exactly a plan.

Looking at her now, knowing what she'd been planning and what she'd been through, he could see that the bags under her eyes and the new hollowness to her cheeks were the result of her pushing herself harder than anyone had any right to expect of her. He asked a question of his own, instead.

"Why do you think the Planet chose you, on your own?"

"I don't know, " she said with shrug. "I know that Mother was said to be a descendant of Yunalesca, but I'm hardly the only one. It could be because I fell into a mako pool five years ago, as when I returned I was being pulled out, but other's have fallen into the pools and been recovered before. The Planet's voice was always clear for me, but that's not unique either." She shook her head before turning to grin at him. "Besides, I'm not alone, am I? I have you."

Glad to see her a little less shaken, he rolled his eyes and continued trudging on for a minute or two before something occurred to him.

"That caravan we saw, that you didn't want to meet up with? Was that because of something that happened...before?" he asked.

"Yes," she said after a moment. "Last time, we were with them when - when they fell down the ravine. There were people who were infected there, and they infected Cenne. When the infection overwhelmed them it - it -"

"You don't have to tell me the details, if you don't want to," Cloud told her. "I can imagine the rest."

"No. No - Orothe and I survived. Orothe saw Cenne became a monster, and Kenhelm, he wouldn't leave her. We only just survived to reach the army," she finished quietly.

Silence reigned for a few moments as Cloud tried to find something to say.

"They're alive now," he said finally. "That's got to mean something. You've changed that, at least."

"You're right," she said so softly it was hard even for his hearing to pick it up. "At least I've changed that."

It was a long trek to the Northern Crater, as Cloud had expected, but the weather was unusually co-operative. The small settlement that would one day become Icicle Inn was located in a part of the continent cold enough to kill the unwary, but the bitter winds and ice-laden blizzards the region was known for were curiously absent. When climbing the rock faces, there was no sleet numbing their fingers and snow didn't blind them as they walked treacherous paths. Cloud had his own suspicions as to why, based on that first conversation, but he wasn't going to complain about it - not when remembering his last journey in the area.

Even with these comparatively gentle conditions, though, he could see Vahana was being worn down by the long days, hard walking, and rationed food. As an enhanced faux-SOLDIER he could continue for some time with minimal food as long as he was prepared to pay for it dearly later, but Vahana's appreciation for whatever he could give her outweighed his expectations for future discomfort. She was thin and used to walking well-trodden routes, so her reserves for this kind of trek were low.

If Cloud was being honest with himself, which he wasn't precisely in the habit of doing, he had stopped thinking of going home as a real possibility. He still missed the people he'd left behind - there was still a part of him that wondered whether they were alive in that future time, or if it had been wiped clean when he went back in time. For all that he couldn't admit it to himself, however, it did guide his actions. He gave Vahana extra food, more sleep, the spare blanket, whatever was needed to keep her going.

_Greengreengreengreengreen_

_burning_

_burning_

_GREEN_

_cloud_

"Cloud?"

Cloud startled awake to Vahana's gentle call - again.

"Thanks," he said, voice hoarse with sleep. "Was I loud?" _Could I have attracted anything to us?_

"No," she reassured him. "Just tense. Was it the same dream?"

"Yeah. Yes. Sorry."

Vahana shook her head and knelt beside him, resting her hand on her back in a show of support that Cloud needed more than he wanted.

"No need to be sorry. Do you want to try and go back to sleep?" she asked.

"No point," he yawned. "I'll take over, you go rest."

Sitting up, he stretched the stiffness out of his upper body and loosed his legs from the bedroll and blanket. His eyes were heavy, but from experience Cloud knew he could shake that off more easily than the dreams from the Planet.

The closer they got to the Northern Crater, the more frequent and incoherent the dream had become. Often it was just a sea of green, or uncomfortably familiar pair of green eyes, with a discordant song of wordless voices cresting over him and drowning him in their insistence. He didn't know if it was the Planet communicating with him or...

_Her._

Orothe's teachings and techniques to listen to the Planet were no longer relaxing, instead increasing the chances that he would end up screaming rather than tensing to the point where he was genuinely afraid for the survival of his teeth.

_We're not far from the crater,_ he thought to himself. _A day, two if Vahana needs the rest. Then we'll be there. Facing her._

_Let's hope the Planet gives Vahana an idea of what to do between now and then._


End file.
